#IgniteWA: 2018 Top Tech Opportunities

 

The IgniteWA team has been tracking along with the entire industry the Top Tech Issues to address in 2018. But we like to see these as tremendous opportunities that hide behind every perceived issue. It’s about having the right perspective and letting that lens focus on the solution.

  1. CYBERSECURITY: From WannaCry to Breaches to a Digital Geneva Convention, businesses of all sizes need to become super vigilant to update continuity plans, look at DR and make security policies part of everyday business life. How do you get educated and engage with the right partners to be secure and focus less on threats and more on your business? For security vendors/partners how can you grow your offering and push your IP into new needed areas to help better serve to exist and attract new customers?
  2. IMMIGRATION: From the travel ban, DACA and the green card backlog, having access to the pool of global talent your business needs to sustain, and grow is paramount. How are you supporting your current global workforce right here in the US and what your employee continuity plan is part of this?
  3. TECHNOLOGY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES: Ensuring a fair shot for everyone and serving under-connected communities opens new doors of business and partnership.
  4. DIVERSITY AND TECH: A watershed year for women and minorities in business. You need to ensure your business thrives from a diverse workforce and that pushes your thinking and approach.
  5. PRIVACY AND SURVEILLANCE: Understanding how your business adapts to changing regulations and how to best provide for your customer’s protection is no longer a nice to have it’s a must do.
  6. AI AND ITS ROLE IN SOCIETY: The future of technology
  7. SUSTAINABILITY AND THE PARIS ACCORD: The U.S. government pulled out, but the tech sector stayed in. Plan on how your business will contribute to protecting the environment and benefit from greener and more eco-friendly business opportunities.
  8. NET NEUTRALITY: It’s not over yet and what is your plan to assure you can reach all your intended customers both current and future – how will your business go forward.
  9. CODING IN SCHOOLS: A decisive year in a decade-long movement and yet we as a nation have a deficiency in science, technology, and innovation. Identify what your business brings to bear to take advantage of these gaps and support cloud and technology acceleration.
  10. GLOBALIZATION OF THE IT SECTOR: It’s a new world

As we advance in 2018, IgniteWA will focus are focused on 4 core areas to advance digital equity and inclusion:

  • TECHNOLOGY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES: Collaborating with all strategic partners to drive digital imperative bill and innovative solutions to provide digital access to all WA rural communities. #digitalimperative
  • DIVERSITY AND TECH: Launching #WomenInCloud initiative to advance women leaders and entrepreneurship in cloud computing
  • AI AND ITS ROLE IN SOCIETY: In collaboration with our strategic partners, we will develop and launch AI focused education and readiness programs for WA business owners.
  • NET NEUTRALITY: Creating groundswell movement to bring all communities together to provide collective voice and solutions to address Net Neutrality challenges.
  • PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS: Develop digital ready programs via public-private partnerships to advance digital inclusion.

Interested to tackle these opportunities with us? Then become part of the IgniteWA community, start here.

/0 Comments/by

Silicon Valley Women In Cloud Leadership Roundtable – Reflections and Call to Action

A recent Women’s entrepreneurship report posted by The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)   said that “In 2016, an estimated 163 million women were starting or running new businesses in 74 economies around the world. In addition, an estimated 111 million were running established businesses. This not only shows the impact of women entrepreneurs across the globe but highlights their contributions to the growth and well-being of their societies.” In addition, over half of women entrepreneurs in the innovation-driven group are in government, health, education, and social services and about 2% women are starting a business in Information and Communications Technology sector. 

Despite substantial progress in the number of women entrepreneurs, the “scaleup-gap” between men and women remains huge, which clearly indicates that there are still some challenges that need to be addressed in this space. These include a greater likelihood of necessity motivation (compared to opportunity), lower growth expectations, and higher rates of discontinuance than men. These challenges just imply that support for new and established businesses really is included in coaching, access to capital, education, mentoring, training, and other resources. These are important assets to grow a women-led business and to help bridge that the gender gap.

 Surprisingly this “scaleup-gap” is also prevalent in Silicon Valley, with its sprawling network of startups. This is the underlying premise for the Women in Cloud initiative (WIC) founded by few teach leaders in Seattle, Washington. Women in Cloud is all about inspiring, empowering and accelerating growth for women-led technology companies. The initiative focuses on digital transformation to provide digital access, digital capabilities and connections to customers through leading cloud industry, community and government partners.

Recently the WIC founding members Chaitra Vedullapalli (CMO & Co-Founder Meylah), Carrie Francey (VP, HPE) and Jacqueline Touma (Founder, CEO Curious Enterprises) hosted a Women in Leadership Roundtable at HPE Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, with the objective of starting a meaningful dialogue and connecting with tech leaders here in the valley around this topic. The event saw participation from several tech companies such as HPE, Mircosoft, SAP, IBM, Brighttalk, Intel. 

We had an insightful conversation about diversity and inclusion strategies that can help advance Women leadership and entrepreneurship in Cloud Computing. Participants shared their perspective and experience with gender bias in the Tech industry. It was interesting to note that while everyone had varied experiences and career paths, there was a vehement agreement on the need for to foster each other’s strengths and to be advocates to support and empower women on this journey.    

After a brief introduction we started with an icebreaker which was so apt to understand the subtle signs of rejection, resistance, and acceptance, “No, Yes But, Yes And”.  On a day to day basis, we see so many women experience rejection and resistance.  It was enlightening to see creativity and innovation derailed with words like “ No”, “but”, and set free in using the qualifier “and”. In today’s world when personal development and success are often driven by innovation “yes, and” can open doors and pave ways for new women-led technology companies. 

This was a great segway into the charter for the WIC initiative. The mission of “Women in Cloud” team is to work with technology startups to change the rejection into acceptance. Through the 6 months immersive Cloud Accelerator program, it aims to assist women-led companies to start and build their businesses with Hewlett Packard and Microsoft distribution channels. 

The WIC team works in collaboration with Industry Partners, Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Meylah. 

To learn about this program and upcoming Inaugural summit on Jan 19th visit www.womenincloud.com. 

Finally, the breakfast roundtable concluded with the discussion that a program like this cannot be limited to Seattle area. We need to open the doors to similar conversations and support network here in San Francisco Bay Area. In the coming months, WIC team will be working closely with their SV chapter leaders, Sampada Basarkar and Vandana Deep. 

Stay tuned to find out about the local WIC events. 

Together we can be engaged and make an impact. 

Sampada Basarkar has held several management-level positions in her 20+ years of experience in the industry. She is currently working as a Program Director at IBM. She is a passionate advocate for Women in Technology. 

Vandana Deep has over 20+ years of experience working in diverse roles in the product development and management. She is currently working as a lead architect at SAP. She is an avid advocate of STEM education for the youth and women.  

/0 Comments/by

Join Women in Cloud | January 19, 2018

The reports on the under-representation of women in technology come as little surprise to many of us with careers in IT.  Women hold 57 percent of all professional occupations, yet they hold only 25% of all computing occupations.

Women-led businesses are eligible to receive 1/8 of the funding available and when funded, women technical entrepreneurs receive 23 percent less funding than male technical entrepreneurs.  Yet women-led private tech companies achieve a return on investment 35 percent higher than male-led companies and bring in 12 percent higher revenue when venture-backed.  This means fewer technical innovations will come from women and for those who are able to take on all of the risks and launch their own startup,  they will do so mostly on their own and by using personal financing.

The leaders of Women in Cloud have spent many years in technology and understand the challenges women at all phases and professions in technology face.  We see the opportunity for women to leap forward in the Cloud—creating innovations and building their business in the cloud from the start.  The mission of Women in Cloud is to ensure women are leading innovations and opportunity in the Cloud, and we are committed to providing access to technical and business resources for the cloud, curating credible sources of support and connection with industry-leading organizations, and facilitating and growing a community of motivated, business building, technology-driven women.

Join us at the Women in Cloud Summit

Our first community summit is January 19, 2018, hosted at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond.  This gathering kicks off the first of a series of community building activities which will include topics on business leadership, technical cloud innovations, and community building topics.  You can view the agenda for the event here.

The Women in Cloud Summit runs 8:30 am- 1:00 pm and registration are $99.  Use offer code “WIC2018” and receive 25% discount until Dec15th, 2017 date.   Capacity is limited and tickets will be honored first come, first served.  You can find the link to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-cloud-inaugural-summit-tickets-38759155678

We look forward to seeing you!

#NoCeilingsintheCloud , #WomeninCloud, #shesoars

/0 Comments/by